


we are the keepers of the sacred words

by beithong



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: F/M, M/M, i literally just wrote this in one sitting to make myself feel better, it is not serious content, post neibolt one-shot, sorry to you all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22087930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beithong/pseuds/beithong
Summary: Beverly's the first to jump in. Just like last time.“I say we have another loogie contest but we don’t tell her,” says Richie, and Ben shoves him over the edge.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 127





	we are the keepers of the sacred words

Mike is the last one to just make it out before the house on Neibolt falls in on itself. Stan’s the first to move. 

Left hand already intertwined with Patty’s, Stan grabs Richie’s arm with his other hand and whups him in onto his chest. He wraps his arm around Beverly’s shoulders and as he kisses her head, grabs for Mike who let’s all of his weight and a half fall on top of Richie. Bills laughs and Patty rests her chin on Stan’s shoulder and Beverly strokes Patty’s back, and Bill begins to walk towards Stan with wide open arms; suddenly equipped with one final burst of energy, Stan grabs Bill’s shoulder with a polite “No,” and moves Bill _away_ from himself and behind Mike instead. Bill laughs a little louder, accompanied with some newly-shed tears, and lets his body fall on top of Mike with a smile. Ben claps Eddie’s shoulder as he watches Richie try to politely shuffle against the weight, and sighs aloud happily before letting his back fall onto Bill’s with his hands behind his head. Richie grunts loudly in pain (”ok guys…someone pick a new spot”) and then everyone’s giggling, like they’re kids again and someone’s broken the silence at a sleepover saying doodoo pee poo. 

Eddie’s standing outside of this bulky embrace with an amused but scrunched up face, looking perfectly content with just watching his shit-and-piss-stained friends hold on to each other for dear life. He catches Stan’s eye, though, who all but rolls his own and jerks his head towards below him. Eddie’s eyes follow, and he gives Stan one quick challenging look, before tossing his entire goddamn body on top of Ben’s chest, and with one big “PFOOEY!” from Ben, everyone is domino-ing towards the ground and on top of Richie. 

They all stay there for a while, laughing, crying, crooning a dramatically groaning Richie, until Beverly suggests they go wash off in the Barrens. 

“Really? We dodge death by an inch and you want to go finish the job anyway by killing ourselves with infections?” 

Richie groans louder, but he’s grinning, and four hands blindly find Eddie’s face with lazy drags as Beverly _shhhh’s_ and places her own finger over his mouth. 

She’s the first to jump in. Just like last time. 

“I say we have another loogie contest but we don’t tell her,” says Richie, and Ben shoves him over the edge. 

“Ooh,” Patty comments intelligently, eyeing the edge with some hesitance after watching Richie go down with a scream that could have belonged to a woman. Stan picks her up from behind. 

“Ready, lovebug?” he croaks (”lovebug?” Eddie comments quietly), and Patty begins to yowl with laughter, shouting “OH BABY, NO,” before they’re both gone in an echo of Stan’s own _WHOO!_

There’s a silence until Eddie repeats, “Lovebug?” but Mike is already strutting over to the edge and wrapping his arms around Ben Hanscom. 

“Ready, lover bug?” he asks straight-faced, and sweet, quiet Ben bellows with laughter as Mike nods solemnly and tosses themselves over as well, both of them screaming like girls. 

“Hey,” says Bill, gently putting a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, “We can tell them you’re having an asthma attack and go t-touch Richie’s car with our hands.” 

Eddie cackles hard. That’d kill Richie in an instant. 

But Eddie is left to suppose that the offer was bullshit, because Bill the Bitch Denbrough throws himself off, too, and then they’re back to right outside of Neibolt- except now he doesn’t even have Stan to make him feel bad. Where else was he supposed to get motivation from. 

Touching a car with his hands sounds really dangerous, actually, and enticing right now, but he hears Beverly yell, “You _bitch_ ” and Richie loudly bark back with laughter, and Eddie’s heart might as well have yanked him face-first into a stove. It at least yanks him to the edge of the cliff, and he scrunches his nose down at everyone, trying so hard not to smile, as everyone catches sight of his figure and looks at him expectantly in a few moments of silence. 

“ _… Yee-oh probably wondering why I’ve gath-ahd you all hee-ah today_ ,” he hears Richie puppet from below in a sort of high-pitched, British Royal voice, but sounding more like that little graham-cracker motherfucker from the ogre movie Eddie had accidentally enjoyed once in a hotel at 3 am in the morning. 

“ _…Nee!_ ” Richie adds, because he must have caught on that his British voice is just a bad Monty accent all around, and Patty joins, and then almost everyone’s _nee!_ -ing below Eddie, sounding like dumbasses, sounding like seagulls at a beach, begging for food. 

“Al _right_ ,” Eddie says, but Richie’s continuing as if he’s the little British Eddie Royal again. 

“ _–Enough! Enough, I say, you ahh not allowed to make fun of me! Stop it!_ ” 

“I hope Giardia finds you specifically in this stupid fucking wat–” 

“ _Oh Lord, help me! The little king hast sent his Giardias after me_ ,” everyone’s losing it, “ _Forgive me, Edward, for thou am just, I am just the poor court jester who caresses the horses_ ”

“What?” Eddie chokes incredulously, and then everyone’s laughing and asking Richie things like from _what_ source is he getting his jester duty knowledge from, except for Eddie, who’s just.. fuckin’ looking at Richie, he guesses. 

_I love you_ , he definitely suddenly thinks. Again. First time was when Richie had kissed him full on the mouth after he’d saved him from the deadlights (to which Eddie had mindlessly given it right back), go figure. Or maybe that wasn’t the first time. Just. God, who cares. Eddie forces himself to look at anyone and everyone else with a very red face. Not a bad sight at all, though. _God.._

_I love all of you so fucking much._

_When was the last time he’d…is this what it…_ And then Eddie has to stop even _this_ minimal thought processing because he’s about to cry like a baby, so he looks down at his hand and twists off the wedding ring without really thinking about it. _I’m sorry_ , he thinks, genuinely. But he’s also thinking about the second time they had all decided to march into Neibolt together, as kids, how brave he had decided he’d be and _was_ , when he clipped off his placebo-flowing fanny pack and threw as far across the lawn as his little body could whip up… he’d suddenly felt so light. In that moment, he’d felt one-hundred percent free. 

And, with that exact moment etching itself back into Eddie’s memory where it belonged, he pulls back with the wedding ring in his palm, and throws. 

Beverly _whoop!!_ ’s and a few others start clapping politely and Richie’s genuinely said, “The fuck was that?”

and Eddie, smiling, chin up and eyes closed, chokes out a sob. With a loud warriors cry,

he jumps.

**Author's Note:**

> if u see this HELLO. hi! wrote this to make me happy. 
> 
> to quote ben hanscom, of the BHEA: kelloggs will hear you say it's gonna be a great day


End file.
